Seven Biggest Mistakes Clients Make When It Comes to Voice Over Narration

With all the projects ranging from corporate videos to e-learning courses, voice-over narration is definitely hot these days. What’s not that hot, of course, is the long line-up of mistakes clients tend to make when it comes to their voice over narration projects.

A voice-over narration project uses a narrator who’s off-camera to provide commentary or information on what happens on the screen. While the concept is quite straightforward, there are a few ways it can go very wrong. Check out this guide from voice over experts Voice Fairy.

Trying to Do It Yourself

A lot of clients feel that it can’t really be too difficult to do voice-over narration. After all, whoever is speaking doesn’t really need to appear on camera, so all they need to do is say a few words on a microphone and it’s done, right?

The answer, in most cases, is no. It’s possible that a company, by chance, has the correct equipment and someone with experience, but it’s not the case 99% of the time. When people find a do-it-yourself voice-over narration project, it tends to be quite obvious that someone inexperienced tried to do it on their own. The timing and audio settings may be off, and editing will be bad or there’ll be none at all.

Hiring a professional voice over professional comes with professional assistance with production, a much better way to get quality results.

Putting Low Cost Before High Quality

When you try to cut corners using your own voice, the work will almost always suffer. Even if your assistant sings in the choir or the CEO is paid thousands for their speaking gigs, trying to save money with a narrator who’s not experienced will end up costing you more.

The voice in your project doesn’t simply relay words. It’s supposed to be the voice of the company. If you opt for anything less than a professional, you likely don’t understand how important it is to focus on branding and first impressions – all things a professional voice over artist can really help with.

Going With the Wrong Voice

Even if a client makes the right call and goes with an experienced voice-over professional, their voice could simply not be a good match for the project. Even professionals have their own limited ranges, and they’ll never align with every single project. Some voices won’t be suitable for certain topics or uses, and some will even be a turn-off for most projects.

For instance, if your company needs to talk about a sensitive subject, it makes no sense for you to pick a booming loud voice. When you’re making a video about serious matters, a high-pitched perky voice is likely the wrong choice. When making an e-learning video, a flat monotone speaker will put any audience to sleep.

Setting the Wrong Pace

The pace of a narration can be hard to get right – and it really needs to match the project in question. Certain projects such as e-learning or medical narration will require a slower pace so the audience can absorb all the information – but it can’t be too slow for them to remain interested.

The pace is a very important component to voice-over narration projects, and professional voice actors will know how fast or slow they should go when it comes to your target audience and type of content.

Failing to Provide Direction

While highly experienced professional voice actors will be able to discern the right way to read most scripts, you need to make sure their ideas align with yours. For best results, a client has to give excellent voice direction as to usage, target audience and style.

To make sure a voice-over narration project has the right impact on the audience, it’s important that you avoid the largest mistakes. And of course, it’s definitely easier to avoid them when you have a highly skilled professional voice-over artist near you.